CHAPTER II.

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 33, 30 April 1881, Page 353

CHAPTER 11.

CIUPI'LEGARTH had no thought of keeping it secret that lie believed the cholera was at their doors at last ; he even published it abroad with pithy oaths and imprecations. The news had soon leavened the whole town that the schooner straining at her anchor in the bay — the ' Mary Ann ' of Bideford — had cholera aboard. Townsfolk and visitors, filled with resentment and fear, gathered on the sands or on the cliifs or ventured round upon the pier and gazed now at the pitching and straining ship and then in each other's face. A criminal desire lurked in the hearts of all : -• If the gale would only reawake, the cable would part or the anchor would drag, and the pestilent schooner would drive to destruction far off upon the rocks, and they would never again see more of her and her occupants but the battered hull ! Have you ever seen a crowd in a panic of crush or fire ? — how the contact and the danger make it as but one sentient creature, and that a terror stricken-beast ? Then have you some notion of how entirely cruel the dread of the awful and mysterious Black Cholera made this Twyscar throng. The human beings who can think and feel and have courage as individuals in an excited crowd are rare. Young Doctor Harland, whom Cripplegarth came upon at the pier-head, was one of these. The harbour-master was loudly declaring that he supposed he would have to send all round the town for a doctor. 'You needn't trouble,' said Harland, coming forward, 'to send up the town : Dr. Cross and Mr. Gold are sure to be out. I'll. go on board if you'll take me.' ' Well, sir, thoo can if thoo likes. But I sup-

pose thoo knows it's cholera— two men and skipper's wife (what does t' wife want sailin' aboot to get into mischief ?) — an' it's no use doin' on't in cholera.' Harland looked at him with his throat full of hasty words, but he only uttered these :— ' Will you me rowed on hoard at once ?' ' You're the doctor, I suppose ?' said the big, bearded, oil-skinned skipper, as Harland clambered up the ship's side and clutched the bulwark to steady himself. ' Thank you kindly sir, for coming ; ' and he fervently wrung the young man's hand. ' This way, sir, if you can ; ' and he led to the forecastle. ' I thought it was your wife, skipper ? ' ' Oh, yes, sir. But the men took first ; so, if you please, sir And Susan herself wants you to go to the men first.' The men tossed in their close dark bunks, the one above the other, sighing and moaning as if they had a grievous weight on their breasts. Harland took the lamp in one hand, and clinging with the other to the edge of the pitching and sloping beds, looked in their faces, noted their black-furred lips, tongue and teeth, and, while the skipper held the light, performed various other acts of diagnosis. He asked questions, which the men tried to answer, but their speech was like that of dumb persons. The skipper anxiously eyed the doctor. ' This is not cholera,' said the young man. 'Not! Thank God!' The doctor smiled a thin, faint smile. ' I suppose you think cholera the worst that could happen ! ' ' Sure-ly ! ' The doctor turned away. In the cabin he found the wife ; such a noble, qxicenly-looking woman as only Devonshire can show frequently among its poor and middling people. Her symptoms were the same as those of the men, but not quite so far advanced. How jealously the skipper eyed every touch and movement of the doctors hand ! Did he not guess that even a doctor's touch, especially a young doctor's, on the skin of a beautiful woman is tenderer and more sensitive far than on that of common man or woman- kind ! The doctor drew aside a little. -They're very thirsty — aren't they ? ' ' Awful. But I've nought but water to give 'em.' •That's all the better.' The big skipper looked from side to side, and then impulsively seized the doctor's hand. ' You're a yonng man, but I make no doubt you're clever, sir. Save her — my Susan, an' I'll gi'e ye ought you like ! I see by your look it's serous ! But the ship's mine, cargoes mine, and I ha' £300 in the bank at Bideford ! The young man stopped him, laying his hand on his arm, and said, ' Don't. I'll do my best First we must get her — her and the men — ashore. Why didn't you enter the harbour at first ? Did you anchor here in quarantine ? ' ' I ran in for the harbour, but didn't make it, and the tug did not come out to take me in. Then the harbour-master rowed out and said it was near low water— l couldn't get in— and advised me to make for Flixenby.' ' Humph ! It is near low"- water time, but what with the wind and sea, it is now at least as full as half - tide ; you can get in well enoxigh.' ' Sure-ly ! You say so ! ' The doctor stroked his eyebrow ; he saw plainly the harbour-master's meaning, but he was resolved to get his patients ashore in spite of him. The vessel gave a painful lurch and | threw him against the skipper. He smiled and said, ' I don't seem to have sea-legs, but, as a matter of fact, not having much doctoring to do here, I have done a good deal of sailoring. I can take a yawl or a smack into this harbour in a nor'easter, and that's what few can do except fishermen brought up in the place. But I don't know if I can take in a schooner. Of course a smack can tack more into the wind.' ' Ay, sure ; but we can signal for a tug at worst.' ' You may signal, but the tug won't come ; ' and then the doctor explained the situation of the town, and its selfish eagerness to sustain its reputation ; its dread of the cholera, and its belief, derived from the harbour-master, that the schooner carried the plague ; and his oAvn conviction that, sooner than help her into the harbour, they would see her drive away and become a wreck. 'By the great Elijah ! Let us go on the rocks, and let its all be drowned or bruised to — ! I can't believe it, sir ! They're Englishmen ! ' ' I wish I could believe with you. But we must be quick ; the gale is rising again. ' (There was a sound in the rigging like the rush of the wind through a fir-tree.) 'You can signal for the tug and see.' Before going on deck they returned to the sick wife's side. Her swollen, fevered mouth opened and attempted utterance. 'She wants a drink,' said Harland, looking about for a water-vessel. ' She'd like me to give it her, sir,' said the skipper, dipping a china cup into a can which swung from the roof, and pressing before the doctor. He gently raised his wife on fiis stron«arm and gave her the drink. ' I wish, ' said he, ' Susy, my dear, I had ought but water for ye.' She clasped her fair round arm closer about his neck and stroked his cheek with her hand. He ottered to kiss her with a ,big sob in his throat, but she pressed him away, shook her head, and smiled. ' The doctor, ' said lie, laying her down, ' will get ye something, my lass, when we get ashore.' She did not seem to have perceived the doctor till noAV, when she looked at him earnestly and, pointing to her husband, tried to speak But the words were thick and unintelligible. The doctor, looked at the skipper. ° ' She says I ha'nt had a sleep for four nights and I must rest as soon as ever we are asTiore'. But, Lord love ye, I ail nought.' The doctor, looking more attentively at his open manly face, noticed that the eyes were worn and red. and that the skin had that arid cold look, beneath its natural ruddiness, which long want of sleep always gives, ' We must get in at once,' said he turnino- to climb to the deck. They ran up the signal for the tug, and while they waited, with the fierce bitter wind searching into every seam and opening in their o- ar . ments, the skipper turned to thedocter : You're sartin sure, sir, it's not the cholera?— But

what do she lose her speech for now ? That ain't gone for altogether, snre-ly ! ' 'No. It always happens in this kind of fever, and she won't get it properly back again till some time after she is quite cured of the fever.' 'My God ! '—looking round at the lowering, darkening sky, and the leaping tempestuous waves — ' if she shouldn't get better at all ! I hadn't ought to have let her make the voyage, and her near her time and all ! " He dashed the back of his hand across his eyes. ' Come, my friend, it's not so bad as that. Your want of sleep unmans you a bit — that's what it is. We must get ashore.' But, looking thither, they saw that the tug still lay at her berth in the harbour. They observed, however, that a boat was rowing" out. When it came alongside, the man at the bow oar stood up and said, 'To take you ashore, sir.' 'Me ashore?' said the doctor. 'We want the tug to take the schooner in.' 'Maister Cripplegarth bid me say it's low water, sir.' Then the young man was angry. ' Tell Cripplegarth that, though lie may fool this stranger with that, he can't fool me. I know in a sea and a wind like this there's little tide ; there's more than enough water on the bar to float a full brig. I know what Cripplegarth wants, but I'm determined to get my patients ashore in spite of him !' 'Ay, ay, sir.' The boat fell away and returned to the harbour. The doctor turned to the skipper, who stood pulling his beard, wearily gazing 014 to sea and then glancing wistfully for signs of motion in the tug. ' Skipper,' said the young man, 'you needn't look for the tug.' "It's going to be a wild night again,' said the skipper. ' You're sure there's water enough ?' ' Quite enough, if you can once turn the pier. Does your schooner sit well to the sea when under sail, skipper? — and answer her rudder smart ? The skipper nodded over and over again, as if it were superfluous to ask. ' Then we'll do it ! About the beating out for a good tack in you'll know better than I do — ' 'Ay, ay!' ' — and about what sails you will set. ' 'Jib and mainsail. I can't manage more'n two wi' only the boy there ' — pointing to a leggy youth of eighteen or so. ' That'll do. Your bit of square rig will not interfere with you, then. Well, all the direction I have to give you is — shave the end of the breakwater pier as close as ever you can ; you get a good capful of wind between it and the lighthouse pier ; then down at once with every sail, and round you go, and shoot alongside the lighthouse there, if not past it.' The skipper eyed the eager young man with an odd smile ; he seemed to have forgotten he was a medical practitioner, and thought of him j only as an amateur sailor. 'Well,' said he, ' we'll see if we can do it. Before I raise the anchor I must go down to Susy again. Would ye like to see her again, sir ?' He now recollected he was addressing the doctor. They found both the wife in the cabin and the two sailors in the forecastle more feverish. ' They do say, ' said the skipper, 'in my part o' the country," that the like 0' that shows a j sudden change 0' weather. Pray God it hain't to be a devil 0' a night again.' The sailors' case seemed so serkms that the doctor at once inquired for wet cloths for their heads, and declared his intention of staying j below. As he sat on the bottom step of the companionway looking into the fusty gloom and hearing the sighing and moaning of the men, which mingled dismally with the dash of the waves against the bows, and the steady clink-clink of the windlass in working the vessel up to here anchor, reflection came upon him. How crammed with incident, feeling, and decision had been the few minutes since he had come 011 board ! He had hurried into advice and action, without for an instant considering himself. He now saw very clearly how he had compromised not only his present safety, but his hopes of successful practice. Would the narrow, prejudiced Twyscarians ever forgive him .' What were the skipper and his wife and men to him more than to the Twyscarians, that he of all men should have rushed into such peril on their account ? Would they reward him for the ruin of his prospects ? would they find him a living now that his chance of one in. Twyscar was lost ? They would doubtless "thank him heartily if they recovered ; if they did not recover, the big skipper would probably blame and hate him. The bump of one of the sailors in his bunk and a louder moan than usual, roused him out of his bitter reverie. With the lightness and buoyancy of youth and health, he was again on his feet by the side of his patients, tenderly ministering to them. That a man's action is nobler than his philosophy, is happily as often tme as the converse is. „ He gave them water to drink, and wrung out afresh the cold wet cloths for their heads. Then a peculiar bound and lurch in the ship told him that they were under sail, and he ran up on deck. The two jibs were set and the mainsail; the skipper Avas at the wheel, and the headlong waves dashed and clambered at the boAvs and fell in harmless spray on the deck. He looked at the shore and the piers, lined with people, and he fancied Avhat a weight of dread and responsibility must be shifting from their craven hearts, as they saw the schooner sailing away — to Flixenby, of course. He tried to imagine the exultation of Cripplegarth at the apparent success of his policy, and the sophistical ease lie and all of them would try to iind for their consciences on board the ship. ' The mean, terrified curs !' he exclaimed to himself. ' And yet, in view of his own mood of a feAV minutes since, he relented a little and considered : ' If that wretch Cripplegarth even were once here, I dare say he'd be kind to these poor things. ' • Doctor, ahoy !' The doctor went abaft to the skipper. 'You'll excuse my makin' so free, sir, but I'd take it particular kind if you'd give a look down at my poor Susy.'

' I Avas just coming, skipper.' ' You'll excuse me, sir ; but Aye ha'n't been married a year yet ;' and the doctor observed there AA'as a large drop SAvelling in the corner of each eye ; but that might have been OAving to the bitterness of the wind, which swept under the penthouse of his sou'wester and found out every hair of his beard. The doctor Avhen he returned on deck saAV that the schooner was not in hopeful plight. She had made but little way out to sea, and with, keeping her head up to the Avind the Avaves burst over her deck ; the forecastle hatchway had to be closed. ' There must be a queer set of current hereabout,' said the skipper. ' There is, but — ' The young man looked anxious and puzzled. Then he took out his Avatch. ' That's it !' he exclaimed. ' The tide has turned, and doubled the strength of the current. If Aye can only get Avell out, it Avill carry us in like a mill-stream.' 'We must see if Aye can hoist the foresail,' said the skipper. ' Can you hold the wheel, sir, till she's up ? So !' At length the schooner Avas got far enough out to sea, the foresail Avas again furled, and, while the skipper drew the Avheel Avell up, the lad stood ready to swing the mainsail round. This Avas not accomplished a moment too soon, for the storm, like a monstrous Avinged thing, could be seen coming Hying over the glooming, Avhitening Avaters. The ship trembled like a living creature in turning, as if she felt the approach of her dreadful enemy. Then she leaned over, and plunged and dashed, through streaming green Avater and curling and hissing white, straight for the pier-head, against and OA r er Avhich the sea Avas madly flinging itself. What Avere the astonishment and dismay of the spectators on the beach and the pier Avhen the ship Avhich Avas bearing aAvay the terrible plague from their doors and the dread from their hearts Avas seen swiftly returning ! Some laughed in a vacant fashion, others exclaimed ' Good God !' and turned as if to find some one to bin me. ' Ah, look ye ! It's sight o' storm has sent her back !' cried some. Cripplegarth guessed more accurately. ' I'sse Avager,' he muttered, 'it's that damned young doctor's trick. He's mad aifter tryin' his new" fangled cures. But, by Gum ! he shanna bring 'em here. Ah, lordy, lordy !' he cried, ' she'll go yet ! She Avunna stand another like that ! She'll drive ! She'll drive !' The squall had oA r ertaken and floAvn upon the schooner Avith its blinding envelopment of rain and Avind. She staggered and walloAved on her beam-ends in the trough of the sea, and as the storm sAvept over her and mingled its streaming darkness Avith the gathering shades of evening, she Avas obscured "for a moment or tAvo from those on shore. Would she re-appear ? or Avas she gone for ever, doctor and all ? Presently she Avas descried plunging valiantly as before, straight at the pier-head ; "she had not been driven half a cable's length from her course. Cripplegarth silently, doggedly, Avatched her approach. ' She'll do it !' Avasthe reluctant and alarmed mutter that went round the wagging heads and uneasy shoulders. And she did it. She shot round the pier and dropped her mainsail in the true Twyscar fashion, and Avhile Cripplegarth glared in discomfiture, she slid in towards the lighthouse, bring her offensive human cargo under their very noses. Even then, hoAvever, her 'Avay' Avas exhausted, and the strong undertoAV might have carried her away, but that for very shame they could not refuse to throw her a rope. They Avere going to haul her in. 'AA-a.st there !' cried the harbour-master; •you can't go into harbour, skipper. 'What's that for, Mr. Harbour-master? I must go in.' 'Keep a civil tongue, skipper. You must go Avhere you're told, or go someAvhere else : you must moor here.' So the schooner Avas moored just off the lighthouse, outside the mouth of the harbour and in its out-draught. The young doctor jumped ashore in a fine passion. ' You'll repent this !' he said as he passed Cripplegarth and strode aAvay.